and in syria an ongoing civil war threatens to spill into turkey, jordan and lebanon while islamic extremists threaten to overshadow the secular syrian groups backed by the west. we pick up on some of these questions with two men who have helped us analyze foreign policy challenges in the past. zbigniew brzezinski was national security advisor to president jimmy carter and now is at the center for strategic and international studies. walter russell mead is professor of foreign affairs and the humanities at bard college. i want to start with the latest on libya with hillary clinton taking the blame for security at the benghazi consulate. where does that leave the matter of the responsibility of the white house, pote for the specific incident and the larger libya policy? >> well, i think secretary clinton was absolutely right that specific security requests don't go up from the state department to the president. so it would be a mistake to say that president obama is responsible for the failure to provide more protection in benghazi. secretary clinton did the right thing by taking responsibilit